Case Study
Oldhall Energy Recovery Facility
Weather Risk Management
How Story Contracting used WeatherWise to deliver accurate time risk assessment and automated claims support for a renewable energy facility in Scotland's challenging climate.
Project Overview
The Oldhall Energy Recovery Facility is a renewable energy project in Scotland, delivered by Story Contracting. The site sits in one of Scotland's most weather-exposed regions, receiving approximately 789mm of annual rainfall alongside frequent high winds and limited winter daylight.
Energy recovery facility construction involves a complex sequence of weather-sensitive activities: foundation earthworks, structural steelwork erection, heavy crane lifts for process equipment, concrete pours, and external cladding. Each activity has its own weather thresholds, and Scotland's climate means weather risk must be quantified precisely rather than estimated with generic allowances.
The Challenge
Building an energy recovery facility in Scotland's west coast climate demands precision weather planning across every phase of construction.
High-Rainfall Climate
With 789mm of annual rainfall, the Oldhall site faces persistent wet weather that affects earthworks, concrete pours, and external finishing works. Standard weather allowances consistently underestimated the actual impact on programme.
Multiple Weather-Sensitive Activities
Energy facility construction involves concurrent weather-sensitive work streams — structural steel, heavy lifts, concrete, cladding, and external mechanical installations — each with different weather thresholds and tolerance levels.
Accurate Programme Contingency
The project team needed to establish a defensible weather contingency in the programme baseline — one grounded in location-specific data rather than industry rules of thumb that fail to account for Scotland's west coast microclimate.
Claims Evidence & NEC4 Compliance
Operating under an NEC4 contract, the team needed contemporaneous weather evidence for compensation events. Manual weather recording was time-consuming, inconsistent, and often gathered retrospectively rather than in real time.
The Solution
WeatherWise provided comprehensive weather risk intelligence tailored to the Oldhall site and the specific activities involved in energy facility construction.
Time Risk Assessment
Activity-calibrated weather calendars showing the probability of weather disruption for each construction activity at the Oldhall site, based on 30+ years of hyper-local historical data.
Activity-Specific Thresholds
Weather thresholds configured for each work stream — crane lifts, steelwork erection, concrete pours, earthworks, and cladding — providing actionable intelligence rather than generic weather data.
Automated NEC4 Evidence
Continuous automated weather recording at the site coordinates from day one, building a contemporaneous evidence trail for NEC4 compensation events without manual effort.
14-Day Forecasting
Activity-calibrated 14-day forecasts translating raw weather data into work-specific impact assessments, enabling proactive short-term programme adjustments.
Client Testimonial
"Makes it easy to assess historical, current, and forecast weather data against contract terms — leading to more economical programmes."
Results
Accurate time risk assessment and automated claims support throughout construction of the Oldhall Energy Recovery Facility.
Accurate
Time Risk Assessment
Data-driven weather contingency replacing industry rules of thumb
Auto
Claims Evidence
Contemporaneous NEC4 weather records from day one
Better
Programme Planning
Activity-calibrated weather calendars for proactive scheduling
789mm
Annual Rainfall Managed
Scotland's challenging climate quantified precisely
Key Takeaways
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1
Location-specific data outperforms generic allowances. Scotland's west coast climate is measurably different from national averages. The Oldhall project demonstrated that site-specific historical weather analysis produces significantly more accurate weather contingency than industry rules of thumb or regional averages.
-
2
Automated evidence collection removes a major administrative burden. Manual weather recording is time-consuming and inconsistent. Automated contemporaneous recording from day one ensures the evidence trail is complete for NEC4 compensation events, without adding to the project team's workload.
-
3
Energy facility construction needs activity-level weather intelligence. A crane lift has different weather thresholds to a concrete pour. Generic weather data tells you whether it will rain; activity-calibrated intelligence tells you whether each specific work stream can proceed. This distinction drives better programme decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
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